HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

AND THE FUTURE CHALLENGES

Faiez H. Seyal *

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Only a decade ago, the term management was scarcely cognizable except in its initial
connotation of arranging items methodically. Now the Management Community is pulsating
with a new vigor, widely known, alive, searched and researched. Times are changing with an
irreversible vehemence as if everyone is heading for a new millennium. The last quarter of
this century is an era of challenges. It is more so in human terms.

South Asia, like others, is also facing this multi-dimensional renaissance. To where this
new current will lead us? Will social attention and energy be utilized for better economic,
geo-political, socio-cultural and technological management? The experts in this fields are still
in a dilemma how to foster economic growth, poverty alleviation and social development.
There are limits to the socioeconomic role that governments can play. Times are ripe that we
should comprehend the gravity of the situation.

The relationship between the world of ideas and the world of action is far from being
unambiguous. In the developing economies like Pakistanhaving a traditional agrarian base,
the task of managing organization is much more complex. However the pioneers of
Management Economics did much to sustain faith in the possibilities of socioeconomic
progress. Highly innovative measures such as improvement in the external economic
environments, efficient policy framework, greater mobilization and more efficient utilization
of human resources are the current pointers to this direction.

We in Pakistan are still facing sad state of affairs: Literacy rate dwindling down to 23%
from 27% in 1947. Population explosion at 4%, drug-menace, sham-theocracy, and an over-
night richness syndrome.

* Vice President. Abacus School of Business Management. Lahore (Pakistan).

Fourth Quarter, 1990 1 Pakistan Management Review

 Our organizational scene is further tilting to frustration when we come across people
from every strata of life, lacking will to change or inclination to learn. They display a
tendency to shirk work. They are epitomes of polarized thinking and lacking fair play
systems and integrity of professionalism.

Let us take the bull by the horns. There are no short-cuts. The contemporary
competitive race needs swift action. Complete Transformation is the order of the Day, for
any type of dynamic organization. This paper talks about the future needs in the human
resources development field and suggests some strategies to deal with some of the critical
questions in this field.

WHAT IS HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT?

Before we define H.R.D., it will be practical to define the term Management first,
because this concept will be much easy to understand with the knowledge about the term
management. There are as many definitions of management as there are books on the
subject. Frederick (1903) has defined management as knowing exactly what you want men
to do and then seeing that they do it in the best and cheapest way.1 However, the process of
management itself is not as easy as this definition. The more relevant definition was given by
Griffin2 in 1984. He said Management is the process of planning organizing, leading and
controlling an organizations human, financial, physical, and information resources to
achieve organizational goals in an efficient and effective manner. By this definition we can
define a manager as a person whose basic activities are a part of the management process or
in easy word who plans, organizes, leads, and control all the four resources.

From the management definition above we can conclude the definition of Human
Resource Management as the process of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling an
organizations human resources to achieve organizational goals in an efficient and effective
manner.

The Institute of Personnel Management in England has published the following

definition.3 Personnel management is that part of management concerned with people at
work and with their relationship within an enterprise. Its aim is to bring together and develop
into an effective organization the men and women who make up an enterprise and, having
regard for the well-being of the individual and of working groups to enable them to make
their best contribution to its success.4

In easy words, human resources management is concerned with human resources

planning, recruiting, selection, training and development, designing compensation and benefit
system, designing performance appraisal systems, and discharging low performing and/or
problem employees. A human resource manager is a person concerned or involved in these
kind of activities.

The part of Human Resource Management which is concerned with the development of
Human Resources is called Human Resource Development and refers to teaching managers
and professionals the skills needed for both present and future jobs or can be defined as a
step taken by the organization to foster learning among employees. Human Resource
Development is both-specific and career-specific.

The topic of human resource development is not new in developed nations, but
unfortunately it is the most neglected field in the developing nations. Managers, supervisors
and employees all require training and continual development if their potential is to be

Fourth Quarter, 1990 2 Pakistan Management Review

utilized effectively. Human resource training has become increasingly vital to the success of a
modern organization. Rapidly changing technology requires that employees possess the
knowledge and skills necessary to cope with new processes and production techniques. The
growth of organization into large, complex operations whose structures are continually
changing makes it necessary for managers, as well as employees, to be prepared for new and
more demanding assignments.

There has been a definite trend in recent years for organizations to take a broader view
of resources by creating career development programs. Such programs involve attempts to
develop the employees career in a way that will benefit both the organization and the
individual. Human Resource are one of the four factors of production and are absolutely
critical for any type of organizational functioning. Organizations are coming to realize that
performance of any firm is dependent upon the effectiveness of their human resources. The
job of recruiting and selecting talented and experienced people is not the last but the first step
in building an effective work force.

In this era of twentieth century, we should recognize the importance of human resources
because the next century will bring more rapid changes in every walk of life and those
organizations will be the winners that have invested in human capital.

CHARACTERISTICS OF FUTURE ORGANIZATIONS5

When we speculate about future we only have logical assumptions. There are no
available facts about the future. Logical assumptions, however, indicate that 0organizations
will be shaped into configurations and systems for the achievement of goals as established by
the values and motivations that prevail. Identifiable factors and forces in our society, as
generated by the values and motivations, indicate some of the characteristics of organization
of the future.

THE CORPORATE SYSTEM

A change is expected to occur in the corporate system, which is now activities-oriented

rather than result-oriented. Managers will develop the means and techniques to direct the
organizations towards the projected needs and objectives of the organizations and also solve
the problems that have slowed down the progress process. The factors and forces of
education will motivate organizations towards a total systems concept for the achievement of
optimum satisfactions. The national goals will be established and corporate, governmental
and educational organization will evolve into more formal systems.

OPERATIONAL SYSTEMS

The operational systems with different prime missions for individuals and the nation
will be devised for the achievement of goals. The prime systems will be for environmental
standards for production and distribution of goods and services, for support services, for
education, and for monitoring. All the prime systems will have prime mission, e.g., the
mission of educational prime systems will be to develop and maintain the human competency
in different systems by providing all the individuals with the equal opportunity to acquire the
needed knowledge, skills and values to operate the organization systems.

THE MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP ROLE

Management leadership in the next century will shift from a role of autocratic
and centralized decision making to decentralized decision and planning in order to achieve

Fourth Quarter, 1990 3 Pakistan Management Review

goals. Many individuals in the organizations will thereby be able to realize satisfactions from
their contributions. Management will be considered a resource, and authority will flow from
the desired results of a system rather than from the dictation of one individual.

The place of the individuals in the organization will be determined by their

knowledge, skills and values. Their contribution, and self-realization will be judged by their
competence to achieve desired results in their assignments. Future organizations will be
dependent upon the values and motivations that young leadership has acquired during their
educational and work experience.

THE MANAGEMENT SKILLS6

A manager needs a number of special skills. These skills are pre-requisites to

managerial success. Having these skills will be the only major factor in the selection of a
manager of the next century. These skills are commonly described as technical skills,
interpersonal skills, conceptual skills, diagnostic skills and analytic skills.7

Technical Skills: Technical skills are the skills necessary to accomplish special
activities. Doctors, Engineers, and Dentists all have the technical skill needed for their
respective profession.

Interpersonal Skills: In addition to specialized skills, managers are expected to have

interpersonal skills. Managers spend almost fifty percent of their time interacting with people
both inside and outside the organization. Interpersonal skills include communication,
leadership, motivational and negotiation skills.

Conceptual skills: It depends on the managers ability to think in the abstract.

Managers need the mental capacity to understand various cause-and-effect relationships in
the organization.

Diagnostic Skills: Successful manager will be the one who acts as a physician for the
organization and will be able to diagnose a problem in the organization by studying its
symptoms. A manager who can diagnose the situation, may also discover a solution for it.

Analytic Skills: Another type of skills which is prerequisite for managerial success is
what we call analytic skills. These are similar to decision making skills. By analytic skills we
mean the ability of a manager to identify and understand the correlation of the key variables
in a situation to decide which should receive the most attention.

In short all successful managers are expected to have five basic skills, i.e., technical,
interpersonal, conceptual, diagnostic and analytic. However, the degree of importance of
these skills differ with the different management levels. The management of today and the
future should be provided with the ample opportunities to acquire these skills, so that they
man share in the business development process.

SOURCES OF MANAGEMENT SKILLS

The facts indicate that the purpose of human organizations in the present century is to
achieve material gain and wealth. Government Organizations have provided the climate;
religious and educational organizations have provided the values; and business organization
have achieved the material results. The most important point in this regard is that the purpose,
motivations, and values have been compatible in the various organization in this century.

Fourth Quarter, 1990 4 Pakistan Management Review

 When we talk about the human resources and organization in the twenty first century.
We assume, that we will survive the last portion of this century to flourish in the next one.8
Survival depend upon the existence of clean-up generation, which will be willing to fix the
damages and clean up the physical and emotional life by the socioeconomic revolution.

The young generation now in universities and colleges will provide the leadership as the
clean-up generation. The motivation of this new and young generation seems to be a quest
for their rights as individuals, a rebellion against regimentation and authoritarianism, and
search for identity.9 The future belongs to the new group and the human resources and
organizations will be influenced by their motivation. The following forces will have a
powerful influence on the organizations of the next century:-

1) Management Education
2) Management Development

MANAGEMENT EDUCATION

In the 20th century, the creation of wealth through economic surplus is emphasized. The
developed nations of the world have recognized the importance of investing in human capital.
Thus, they have invested a lot and have created a knowledge industry. In advanced nations it
is learned that an investment in human capital could yield higher rate of return as compared
with investment in capital goods or land. The investment in human capital will also have an
added benefit of improved level of economic growth and social progress. Alfred Marshall a
great British Economist in late 19th Century emphasized the importance of human capital as
the most valuable of all capital is that invested in human beings.

The developed nations are insisting on the investment of human capital. These nations
have average literacy rate close to 80% on average, which is expected to reach 95% by the
first quarter of the next century. In contrast the literacy rate in LDCs is only 28% on average.
In U.S.A., almost 250 pound of published paper is produced each year per person. Also
nearly 400,000 new books are published each year excluding government publications.

We see a new trend in late 20th century in developed nations. The enrolment in the
business schools and colleges has increased a lot in recent years. Many students are seeking
undergraduate degrees in Business and Management. M.B.A program has also experienced a
rapid growth. Several new programs are added in this series. Several business undergraduates
have recently begun to take business courses. In 1977, 12% of the chief executives of 1300
largest U.S. Companies did not have a degree. By 1980 this figure fell down to 10.8 percent
and 46 of the 50 largest Companies were headed by college graduates.10 This figure has fallen
down to 5 percent by the end of 1989.

If we look into Pakistani education system we also notice a change. Private sector is
showing an increased interest in the Business Programs offering undergraduate and graduate
degrees. Three new institutes are opened in one of the major cities of Pakistan in private
sector in the last few years. By the middle of 1990, the number of business graduates have
doubled as compared to 1986. Students are also taking interests in business study. This is a
healthy sign for coming years. This paper is not concerned about the management education
for the coming generations. But is concerned about the future of the managers already in their
jobs. The problem is to develop and train these people already in jobs, that is what we call
human resource or management development. Even now there are almost 80 percent of the
business managers in Pakistan without a degree. Because of the fact that business schools in
Pakistan do not offer part-time courses for the working managers, managers do not get any
chance to improve their managerial skills. The only option open is to develop the talent of

Fourth Quarter, 1990 5 Pakistan Management Review

these managers by offering them short courses, seminars and conferences in-house or out-of-
house.

The forces of management education and development will cause a change in emphasis.
Instead of separating people from wealth for social progress, we should make an attempt to
separate people from ignorance and poverty for social equality and economic opportunity.
The economies discovered through innovation for creating physical wealth should serve as
examples for devising economies in education to create human wealth.11

2) MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT

The greater human resource, a developing country has is people now in jobs. These
people have acquired some skills and managerial concepts in their jobs but it is not enough
for business success and excellence. It is what the concept of Human Resource
Development is all concerned about. It is concerned about training and development of
managers to prepare them for the new and existing jobs.

It is their own, their employers, and the countrys responsibility that technical and
business management institution must be designed that will enable them to upgrade
themselves, attain higher skills, perceptions and concepts.

These managers could and should be drawn into the nation and enterprise building
process. These managers must be trained and must be made aware of the changes that human
resource development of the country brings in the social and economic development of a
country.

The available facilities of management development in the country are not sufficient to
fulfil the demand. Private Sector must come into action and participate in the socioeconomic
development of the country by improving the management talent. Short and long courses
seminars, conferences and workshops should be designed for these people. These institutions
should develop their own faculty differently as compared to the educational faculty. Practical
faculty, not the theoretical, people should be trained in the different field of H.R.D. as
trainers, course designer, course coordinator, consultants, trainer of trainers. etc., etc.

STRATEGY TO HIRE AND RETAIN PROFESSIONAL STAFF12

The quality of professional staff is a critical determinant of the effectiveness of any

management development institution. The term professional staff or faculty refers to the
institutions staff who initiate and conduct training, research, consulting and related
professional activities.

The nature of professional staff requirements may vary from one institution to the
another, depending upon the mix of services it is offering and whether an institution is new or
old. A new institution fees the complex task of selecting and developing the professional staff
in the H.R.D. field.

The task of selecting the faculty specialized in the functional disciplines is not complex.
It is common practice in these type of institutions to use part-time functional faculty, which is
easily available in developed as well as developing countries. This part-time faculty may be
drawn from educational institutions or from public or private sector organizations.

However in both developed and developing nations, the supply of professionals trained
in the Human Resource Development fields often falls short of demand. An aggressive and
effective search policy should be employed by the institutions. The conventional policy of

Fourth Quarter, 1990 6 Pakistan Management Review

advertising in the press and recruitment from the responded applicants will not yield
satisfactory results in this case. Well qualified will not respond to these advertisements,
because their demand is already high. On the other hand substandard candidates may apply
and may be selected.

GUIDELINES TO HIRE AND DEVELOP H.R.D. PROFESSIONALS

It is noted that the serious shortage of professional management trainers, consultants

and other professional staff exist in the H.R.D. field. In the most underdeveloped countries,
the field of management is itself new which is an added problem in this context. Therefore
available stock of H.R.D. professionals are only meagre. Under these conditions, the new
management development institutions should use a strategic plan of hiring young graduates
with high talent and then investing in their professional development using facilities in or
outside the country. It is proved by several institutions that have adapted this policy, that
younger people are more flexible than the older ones and learn far quickly. These younger
graduates should then be trained in their field of interest to become course conductors, course
designers, course administrator and consultants. Because of the complex and numerous
responsibilities of H.R.D. professionals, they are separated in to four categories.

1. Course Conductors (instructors, trainers and lecturers).

2. Course Designers (persons responsible to design a course or a learning experience).
3. Course Administrators (a manager of all or part of a training system).
4. Consultants to the organization (department, enterprise, sector or nation).
The following guidelines should be carefully observed when selecting the people to
become H.R.D. Specialists.

1. Select H.R.D. professionals just as you do to select anyone, select them because they
have performed identical tasks to those they will perform for you. If you do not find
experienced people, hire people with interest, aptitude and desire to succeed.

2. Train them by enrolling them in training courses so they can master the skills they will
be required in their new profession. You should also help them experiment and evaluate, and
let them gather empirical data about effective and ineffective ways to help others acquire
skills.

3. Finally, evaluate them by the degree of success they show, when they are ready to
perform their tasks..

The major point in all of these steps i.e. selecting, training and evaluating is that you
must exactly know what this person is expected to do that is what we call job description.
In other words, when hiring a person, you should be clear that why this person is being hired
and what he is supposed to do. The following flow chart may be used in the selection process
as a guideline.

Fourth Quarter, 1990 7 Pakistan Management Review

 Determine the tasks
to be performed

Yes Have I anyone available who No

has done all these tasks

Select the candidate the

greatiest success record

Select the candidate Yes Have I anyone No Select a candidate who

who can do the largest available who has can quickly learn all
number of tasks done any of the tasks? these tasks

Train the person you select to:

1. Perform all the required tasks;
2. Perform existing skills to higher
standards.

Source: Miller Vincent A., The Guidebook for International Trainers in Business and
Industry, New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company (1979), p. 1984

This investment will yield in high returns provided the younger talent has been selected
with care. The following criteria should be used in selecting the people to become H.R.D.
Specialists.13 As we already discussed, that due to complex and numerous responsibilities of
H.R.D. professionals they are divided in to four categories. Each category demands different
skills: Therefore when training the H.R.D. persons to become specialists in one of the four
categories described above, the following guidelines should be followed carefully.

Developing the H.R.D. Specialists

Category Minimum Requirements Worthwhile Enrichments

Course Conductors Behavioral objectives Case methods

training should Learning theory In-basket
include: Reinforcement theory Sensitivity training
Listening skills Use of media
Questioning skills Open classroom
Discussion leading Incident process
Lecture and demonstration Action maze
Job instruction training Roleplaying

Course Designers Behavioral objectives Conference design

training should Learning theory Programmed instruction
include: Reinforcement theory Open classroom.
Questioning techniques Incident process
Feedback systems In-basket

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 Logical outlining Writing skills
Use of media Roleplaying
Discussion leading
Case methods
Jobs instruction training

Administrators Planning skills Sensitivity training

training should Organizing skills Organization
include: Listening skills Development
Writing skills All skills listed for the
Questioning skills conductors and designers
Speaking skills
Discussion leading

Consultants Listening skills Organization Development

training should Questioning skills Speaking skills
include: Reinforcement theory Writing skills
Sensitivity training All skills listed for the
Problem-solving skills other three roles
Performance analysis

Source: Adapted from Miller Vincent A., The Guidebook for International Trainers in Business
and Industry, New York. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company (1979), p. 208.

A major limitation to this strategy besides its high cost is that the new people become
productive only at the end of the development period. In the long run, this is not a drawback
because the other choice is hiring old professionals who may be underequipped to deal with
the new education and research tasks. New institutions are recommended to have a thorough
cost-benefit study of the alternatives before they finally take a step.

GUIDELINES TO RETAIN H.R.D. PROFESSIONALS

It is obvious and clear, once you have invested a good amount of money on the
development of your professional staff, you will not like to loose them when they become
productive at the end of the development period. Therefore it is suggested to adapt the
following strategies to retain your trained staff.

1. Newly appointed staff should be clear about their career prospects and the opportunities
for growth and development in the said field.

2. They should be provided with the opportunities up the professional ladder rather than
the administrative or managerial ladder.

3. The professional grades and designation used should clearly describe their job
description and should be compatible with the general practice because it is noticed in
practice that designations are a major attraction to a majority. The commonly used
designations are Chief Trainer, Course Coordinator, Senior Training Officer, Chief
Consultant, and Research Officer.

Fourth Quarter, 1990 9 Pakistan Management Review

4. An operating culture that respects professional peer authority rather than administrative
hierarchy is found to be more functional and the same should be employed.

5. A critical function that has a direct impact on retaining of professionals is the

performance appraisal. The institutions should have greater flexibility in the promotions they
can grant and the resources they need to sustain a reward system capable of motivating its
staff.

6. They should be provided with ample opportunities throughout their career, for their
self-development to keep them abreast with the new advancement in their field.

7. Salary scales should be such as to attract well qualified and talented professionals who
will be creative and innovative in the performance of their institutional tasks.

8. Monetary rewards alone, sometimes, are not sufficient. A good, clean, pleasant and
quite working atmosphere is the basic and important need of this group because of their
intellectual and research related responsibilities.

9. A Procedural and Hierarchical kind of leadership encourage organizational

rigidities and therefore must be avoided. On the other hand, such kind of leadership should be
employed that is accessible to the staff, receptive to ideas and encourages experimentation,
questioning and risk taking. It will stimulate innovativeness and commitment.

10. A participative role for the professional staff in institutional building is another factor in
this context. Teaching, research and consulting staff should be totally involved in their jobs.
A strong sense of involvement will exist only if they have a decisive role in designing,
planning and conducting the programs. They should also participate in the strategic planning
process of the institution, so they can generate new ideas and dedicate themselves to achieve
new goals.

11. Commitment to profession is another important factor to remember. Commitment of the

professional staff can be enhanced by encouraging them to be active members of professional
associations and societies, where they will get a chance to benefit themselves by sharing their
experience with other professionals.

CONCLUSION

At this fag end of the 20th century, we do realize that investment in human capital will
probably yield higher returns than in any other capital. The concept of real management is of
grater importance at this time,14 which states that real management expects a manager to
produce better managers better than himself and in such a away that they, in turn, will
themselves produce yet another generation of managers better than themselves, and so on for
ever. This evolutionary process enhances the quality of management with each new
generation. There is a need for a reappraisal of the role of the organizational pressure groups
to counter-act negative attitudes. A pragmatic consideration for the development of human
resources to ensure overall effectiveness and quality of durable Management is the basic
challenge. Let us all combine to enhance and embrace the benefits of this New Renaissance.
Let us accept this new challenge, to mould our organizational set-up in straight direction
because this is the only way to business success and excellence. The new management
institutions are the demand of the Time. It will involve a big investment, but the
expenditures can be controlled without dropping the standards. If we succeed, we will be able
to create education surplus greater than the economic surplus, but we will have to follow a
deliberate policy. It suggests:

Fourth Quarter, 1990 10 Pakistan Management Review

 Accountants are challenged to make proper evaluations to get the human asset on the
balance sheet; economists must learn to include human capital in their calculation.
Administrators have no alternative but to develop educational systems that can deliver
improved quality at less unit cost rather than proliferate the quality of activity at costs we
cannot afford.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Faiez H. Seyal is a H.R.D. Specialist. He holds Masters Degree (M.A) in Economics

from Punjab and Masters Degree in Business Economics from Oklahoma, U.S.A. He also
holds Diploma in Computer Science from Pakistan and Diploma in Management from
England. He is Member of several professional associations and societies and has attended
several seminars in the different fields of Management and H.R.D. at home and abroad. He is
also author of several articles.

He has over six years work experience in teaching and management training in Pakistan
and abroad. At present, he is serving Abacus School of Business Managementa subsidiary
of Abacus (Private) Limited, Management Consultants, as Vice President.

REFERENCES

1. Frederick W. Taylor, Shop Management, New York, Harper & Row (1903), P-21.
2. Rick W. Griffin, Management, Massachusetts, Houghton Mifflin Company (1984),
p-7.
3. The terms Personnel Management and Human Resource Management are
synonyms, and the same way terms, Personnel Development, Management
Development and Human Resource Development are synonyms.
4. Graham H. T., Human Resource Management, London, Pitman Publishing Company
(1988), p-123.
5 This section is based heavily on John F. Mee, Speculation about Human Organisations
in the 21st Century, Business Horizons, Feb. 1971, pp 5-7, 10-16.
6 This section is based heavily on Rick W. Griffin, Management, Massachusetts,
Houghton Mifflin Company (l984), pp 18-25.
7. Robert & Katz, Skills of an Effective Administrator, Harvard Business Review,
SeptemberOctober (1974), pp-90-102.
8. Richard D. Carter, Future Challenges of Management Education, New York,
Praeger Publishers (198l), p 56.
9. Same as No.8, p 58.
10. Water Kiechel III, Executives without Degree, Fortune, June 28, 1982; pp 119-120
11. Richard D. Carter, Future Challenges of Management Education, New York,
Praegcr Publishers (1981), p. 60.

12. This section is based heavily on Managing a Management Development Institution,

Edited by Milan Kubr, International Labour Organisation (1982), pp 113-134.
13. Miller Vincent A., International Trainer in Business and Industry New York,
Nostrand Reinhold Company (1979), pp 181-208.
14. Aga Hassan Abdi, Introducing the Concept of Real Management, Pakistan & Gulf
Economist March 24-30, 1984.
15. Richard D. Carter, Future Challenges of Management Education, New York,
Preager Publishers (1981), p 60.

Fourth Quarter, 1990 11 Pakistan Management Review